[1] Known as the birthplace of heavier-than-air flight in Germany, Johannistal was Berlin's primary airport until the Tempelhofer Field was developed in the 1920s.

The former airport was used by the National People's Army as a military training ground; while the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (with 14 natural science-technical institutions and six service centres) employed approximately 5,500 scientists and technicians.

Today, the Johannisthal field is a major urban development associated with the Berlin-Adlershof City of Science and Technology.

Laboratories, motor test beds, wind tunnels and hangars, erected in the 1920s and 1930s by the German Experimental Institute for Aviation (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt – DVL, the ancestor of today's DLR), are historical landmarks of the Aerodynamic Park today.

The German astronaut Reinhard Furrer died on September 9, 1995, during a historic flight show.